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Feb 22, 13 at 1:15amJustplayingitcool

With the announcement of the next PlayStation 4 and highly likely the next Xbox, I thought that this would be a very good opportunity to ditch my Xbox 360 and go onto a gaming PC. However, there is a slight problem, firstly, I'm not exactly rolling in the cash like Scrooge McDuck is. I currently have a measly £125, which I know is not good enough to even buy a really bad computer. But I thought that I should do some research while I'm saving the money. I've done some calculations and I reckon that I'll have £250 by the start of May. And who doesn't like a good bargain?

The second problem that I face is that I don't have the right know how of what Processor is better for its price, or any kind of hardware components. Yeah, I know what each part does but I don't know what the best one is and what makes a good one. I'm more of a software kind of guy so some help is needed.

Thanks.

Thread Recap (last 10 posts from newest to oldest)

Feb 27, 13 at 10:42am

ashantiqua

in terms of performance, 2x the CPU GHz is never equal to 2x the threads (assuming the game uses those threads, which next gen games will). architecture is the the most important here, and theres been barely any info detailing what exactly is being used in the ps4 and next xbox. you might be able to get away with a beefy 4-thread CPU for the first generation or two of next gen game ports, only due to the time it takes for dev programmers to adapt and fully utilize 8 threads (no small task).

as shiny mew pointed out, GHz is a poor indicator of performance. hell, the last 5 years GPUs have all been roughly around 600 - 900MHz... yet we see massive improvements due to architecture.

consoles also use custom drivers, custom dev kits, custom hardware (even if its based off vanilla PC spec stuff), a custom OS, and most importantly... games are custom made for their hardware. this is why PCs need to throw a good amount of extra muscle at any console port to compensate.

ps4 looks fairly beefy. so considering all the extra PC bloat (generic drivers, big ass OS, etc), if youre building a PC now to play next-gen games.... all i can say is thread lightly.

Feb 27, 13 at 12:07am

Crusad3r

Shiny Mew I know that, but the thing is, we don't know when the next console is coming out after that. It has been nearly a decade between the PS2/Xbox and PS3/Xbox360 and the specs of the consoles back then were as good as, if not better than most high end gaming PCs of the time. The consoles this time barely compare to high end gaming PCs. In fact, they only compare to mid-range gaming PCs.

Feb 27, 13 at 12:07am

CMNealTan

I agree, consoles are built for gaming (though some use them to view videos), while pc's are way just beyond gaming.

Feb 26, 13 at 11:55pm

Shiny Mew

your pc is going to be outdated fairly quickly at this point - though if you want to play current gen games on PC, go for it.

ps4 has a true 8 core CPU, and the next xbox will likely as well, so those'll be the lead dev platforms for future games. this means to play PC ports of those games, your PC will likely need to support 8 threads min as well + a fairly beefy GPU. given that windows saps much more resources than a console OS, and console games are much better optimized for console hardware, your CPU and GPU will likely have to be quite a bit faster than console tech to run next-gen games at full eye candy.

Their "8 core CPUs" run at around 1.6ghz. If you have a 3.2ghz or higher 4 core CPU, it'll run it just as well, provided they have roughly the same amount of transistors. The next gen console graphics cards are also disappointingly weak - Their core clock will be around 800mhz, which is less than my 2 year old GPU - impressive on paper maybe, but in reality, not that great. I really don't think that the next gen games will take up that much resources for the near future anyway. It took a long time between the release of the xbox 360 and now for the graphics to improve this much, since the technology to make better looking games, at this point, are still in their infancy.

Having a PC now will also allow for cheaper upgrades in the future, since you'll only be replacing 2 or 3 parts at a time. PC gaming is also getting cheaper and cheaper, with more developers opting to have in-game microtransactions and profit off that rather than initial sales, digital or otherwise.

Although the core clock on a GPU isn't a massive factor. You can get a 1GHz HD 7770, but it's not better than my 860MHz HD 7850. Consoles can also have a lot weaker GPU's due to the fact that they don't have so many programs running in the background for the OS as well as other stuff, so the resources are more dedicated to the games.

Feb 26, 13 at 11:26pm

Crusad3r

your pc is going to be outdated fairly quickly at this point - though if you want to play current gen games on PC, go for it.

ps4 has a true 8 core CPU, and the next xbox will likely as well, so those'll be the lead dev platforms for future games. this means to play PC ports of those games, your PC will likely need to support 8 threads min as well + a fairly beefy GPU. given that windows saps much more resources than a console OS, and console games are much better optimized for console hardware, your CPU and GPU will likely have to be quite a bit faster than console tech to run next-gen games at full eye candy.

Their "8 core CPUs" run at around 1.6ghz. If you have a 3.2ghz or higher 4 core CPU, it'll run it just as well, provided they have roughly the same amount of transistors. The next gen console graphics cards are also disappointingly weak - Their core clock will be around 800mhz, which is less than my 2 year old GPU - impressive on paper maybe, but in reality, not that great. I really don't think that the next gen games will take up that much resources for the near future anyway. It took a long time between the release of the xbox 360 and now for the graphics to improve this much, since the technology to make better looking games, at this point, are still in their infancy.

Having a PC now will also allow for cheaper upgrades in the future, since you'll only be replacing 2 or 3 parts at a time. PC gaming is also getting cheaper and cheaper, with more developers opting to have in-game microtransactions and profit off that rather than initial sales, digital or otherwise.

Feb 26, 13 at 1:04pm

ashantiqua

your pc is going to be outdated fairly quickly at this point - though if you want to play current gen games on PC, go for it.

ps4 has a true 8 core CPU, and the next xbox will likely as well, so those'll be the lead dev platforms for future games. this means to play PC ports of those games, your PC will likely need to support 8 threads min as well + a fairly beefy GPU. given that windows saps much more resources than a console OS, and console games are much better optimized for console hardware, your CPU and GPU will likely have to be quite a bit faster than console tech to run next-gen games at full eye candy.

Feb 25, 13 at 11:31am

harhis23

Your budget is not even enough for a less powerful gaming rig. What you can build is a standard desktop computer for office works and light gaming. But if you want to go with it, well, you'd rather buy stock desktops.

Feb 23, 13 at 4:50am

ChiroVette

I've heard of prebuilts going for $3k being beaten by $2k rigs that the owners built themselves.

That has always been the case since DIY PC builds became popular and widespread in and around the early nineties, maybe even the late eighties. In fact, up until recent years, it used to be even better for do-it-yourselfers. At one point, the ratio was about 1:2, meaning you could build a PC, if you knew where to buy your components, for about half of the retail price of a pre-build. However, back then, there was no Tiger Direct or Zip Zoom Fly. Well, these companies may have been in business, but the consumer didn't have an Internet that was anywhere near as universal as it is today. So you didn't have hundreds of thousands of small Internet PC retailers and dozens of larger PC manufacturers all competing with one another. Suffice it to say, the days of building a PC for half of what the store bought build costs seem to be over. But again this could easily be because, proportionally speaking, and factoring in for relative inflation, pre-built PC's are actually cheaper than ever. Or it could be that the people making individual components for retail sale to DIY consumers have raised the prices. Hell, maybe its a little of both. lol

Feb 23, 13 at 4:29am

CMNealTan

Let me tell you, that's a great link. I can build a really nice system (i7 and 670), based on those specs, for $1,500 + monitor, keyboard, and mouse. So I could probably build a smoking system for around $2K counting everything.

Thanks, ChiroVette!

Yes, that smoking system for around $2k is a certainty! You just have to be aware of the prices going around stores and choosing the right product for your needs. I've heard of prebuilts going for $3k being beaten by $2k rigs that the owners built themselves.

Feb 22, 13 at 10:38am

ChiroVette

Click on the signature in my link. Logical Increments is a site that shows suggestions on computer builds depending on what budget you have.

Let me tell you, that's a great link. I can build a really nice system (i7 and 670), based on those specs, for $1,500 + monitor, keyboard, and mouse. So I could probably build a smoking system for around $2K counting everything.